JACKIE ROBINSON AND THE WHITE SOX

1942: The White Sox were in position to change the course of baseball history but passed.

 

On this date, White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes watched African American athletes Jackie Robinson and Nate Moreland work out at his team’s spring training facility in Pasadena, California.

 

According to Jules Tygiel’s 1983 book “Baseball’s Great Experiment,” Robinson, best known as a football star at UCLA, and Moreland, a Negro League pitcher, requested a tryout, which Dykes granted.

 

History tells us that nothing came of the tryout but Dykes, who stated he was willing to accept black players, was impressed even though Robinson was hobbled by a charley horse, according to Tygiel.

 

“I’d hate to see him on two good legs,” Dykes said. “He’s worth $50,000 of anybody’s money. He stole everything but my infielders’ gloves.”

 

After a stint in the army and with the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro Leagues and the minor league Montreal Royals, Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier with Brooklyn in 1947. Robinson did not mention this tryout with the White Sox in his 1972 autobiography “I Never Had It Made.”

 

Minnie Minoso broke the White Sox color barrier on May 1, 1951.

 

Well, the Sox always seem to be the "what if?" team that actually has interesting names attached like Robinson and Babe Ruth.